Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. usu. of a woman, attractive.

a.1658		‘Wooing of Robin and Joan’ in Ebsworth Roxburghe Ballads (1891) VII:2 309: O Zon, th’art of a lawful age, / And a jolly tide[y] Boy.
1843		T. Haliburton Sam Slick in England I 184: A nice tidy body that too, is Mrs. Hodgins.
1845		Bell’s Life in Sydney 1 Feb 2/6: Elizabeth Davis, a tidy little Emeralder, was charged [...] with being drunk and using obscene language.
1849		Sam Sly 3 Feb. 7/3: On the opposite side is an eating-house, where there is a very tidy-looking girl, we mean Ma—y.
1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 3: If that young woman [...] were well fed and decently dressed, she’d be as tidy a looking girl as you could meet with.
1877		‘’Arry on His ’Oliday’ in Punch 13 Oct. 160/2: I looked sweet / On a tidy young parcel in pink as ’ung out in the very same street.
1881		G. White Eng. Without and Within 387: Among them [the lower middle class] a tidy girl means a pretty girl, and particularly a girl with a good figure [OED].
1912		Bulletin (Sydney) 18 July 30/1: Who’s this [wig] for? Ethel Irving, as tidy a lady as ever scorched the planks.
1977		S. Berkoff East in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 48: Her svelte and tidy form.
1998		I. Welsh Filth 84: Tidy wee piece, Ray says.
2003		www.thepantsman.com 🌐 Group after group of tidy young units strolling past on warm nights, wearing next to nothing.
2013		K. Sampson Killing Pool 5: Tidy, very tidy [...] Neat little arse [...] nice perky tits.
2015		I. Welsh Decent Ride 4: Eh wis ridin that burd [...] tidy fuckin boady oan it.

2. good, satisfactory.

1805		J. Reynolds Blind Bargain I i: The Londoners had heard as how I was a tidy hand at cricket.
1810		C. Dibdin Yngr New Comic Pantomime called The Astrologer 19: O, wasn’t she a tidy one? A tidy one!
1820		Jack Randall’s Diary 47: Since you’ve cut the tidy thing [...] They clearly see, beyond all doubt, The milling candles all snuff’d out.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 33: Tidy – pretty good.
1838		R. Nicholson Cockney Adventures 6 Jan. 74: Tom Gubbs was an agreeable fellow, dressed well, and sung a tidy song.
1840		Flash Mirror 4: The Doss Fakement [...] That is what may be called a tidy concern.
1846		Bell’s Life in Sydney 31 Oct. 3/1: We never witnessed a ‘tidier’ bit of fun than took place before Mr. Windeyer this forenoon, wherein the captain of the Java [...] appeared to prefer a charge against a seaman named Young.
1849		Sam Sly 6 Jan. 3/3: Sam thinks you may by-and-by make a tidy singer, but you must ‘wait a little longer’.
1852		F. Smedley Lewis Arundel 147: You’ve given ’em a pretty tidy warming though, sir.
1857		Bell’s Life in Victoria (Melbourne) 11 Apr. 4/4: ‘I say, master! but you brought a tidy sort o’ half-bred tit wi’ you for the big race’.
1863		T. Taylor Ticket-Of-Leave Man Act I: dalton: [drinking]. Ah, tidy swizzle.
1877		Five Years’ Penal Servitude 240: He’d [...] go to two or three different churches, where he did a tidy thing now and then.
1884		Leicester Chron. 28 June 12/5: If I could find a tidy pal, now —.
1902		Bulletin (Sydney) 6 Sept. 29/2: Then I had a dozen, maybe, till the morning after that; / When she sez – ‘No; not another, till you ante up the sprat.’ / ‘But,’ I sez, ‘I’m stony-broke.’ / ‘Well,’ she sez, ‘it’s past a joke; / An’, as you’ve spent your money – why, I think you’d better go – / Go! – off you go. Now, you’ve had a tidy show.’.
1911		G.R. Sims Off the Track in London 211: The mother [...] is a ‘tidy body’ and does her best.
1923		P. MacGill Moleskin Joe 60: The tidiest soldiers in the whole damned brigade [...] the best of the whole damned lot!
1930		(con. 1900s–10s) Dos Passos 42nd Parallel in USA (1966) 71: You’ll be doin’ a tidy bit on the roads before you can say Jack Robinson.
1942		E. Cross Tailor and Ansty 96: He was a tidy, decent slip of a man.
1963		H.E. Bates Oh! To be in England (1985) 343: Oh! there’s a tidy bit o’ talent about if you know where to look for it.
1974		D. Ireland Burn 86: Billy lets go a tidy rip to his big young brother’s ribs.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 107: It had all started so well: a tidy little business venture.

3. substantial; usu. of money, e.g. a tidy sum.

1829		‘Lag’s Lament’ (trans. of an untitled cant poem) in Vidocq (1829) IV 264: Making from this and that and t’other, / A tidy living without no bother.
1835		‘Frisky Poll Of Broker’s Alley’ in Knowing Chaunter 19: Vhile Poll a tidy living got, / By bawling sprats on Broker’s-alley.
1842		Bell’s Penny Dispatch 20 Mar. 3/2: Wilson, the dancing master, at one time must have been knocking up a tidy crust.
1855		J. Brougham Basket of Chips 327: There was a tidy lot of them.
c.1868		‘A New Political and Reform Alphabet’ in C. Hindley Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 83: And they tidy sums get, to keep their mouths shut.
1873		J. Greenwood In Strange Company 35: There seems to be a tidy swarm of ’em to-day.
1875		‘Aliph Cheem’ Lays of Ind (1905) 226: Draw pensions in their waning years / And tidy pensions too.
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 47: Jim and I worked away steady, got in a tidy bit of crop.
1890		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer III 3: They’ve got what with their selections and pre-emptives, a tidy slice [...] of Rainbar run.
1898		W. Pett Ridge Mord Em’ly 213: ‘Long way off, isn’t it?’ ‘It’s a tidy distance, certainly.’.
1900		Marvel 12 Dec. 1: If he was dead [...] we should come in for a tidy bit of money.
1903		Mills & Scott [perf. Marie Lloyd] That Accounts for It 🎵 And if I'm any sort of judge of diamonds / Hers must have cost a pretty tidy bit.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 13 Mar. 8/2: A Bendigo man, worth the tidy sum of £73,000.
1910		Truth (Perth) 10 Dec. 4/8: And he spends a tidy penny / On them there two self-same queens.
1917		Boy’s Own Paper XL:1 34: The canny Scotsman realised a tidy sum for the sale of his empty boxes.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 154: Encourage people to put by money save hundred and ten and a bit twentyone years want to work it out on paper come to a tidy sum, more than you think.
1930		E.H. Lavine Third Degree (1931) 132: Mrs. Mowry was the widow of a steel worker who had died ten years before, leaving her a tidy sum in savings and insurance.
1939		Rover 18 Feb. 8: You’ve had a tidy sum from me. Be content.
1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 27: A series of commodities which [...] could be parlayed into tidy fortunes.
1959		B. Kops Hamlet of Stepney Green Act I: I always suspected that you had a tidy sum stuck away.
1970		A. Sillitoe Start in Life (1979) 216: A tidy sum of five thousand three hundred!
1986		F. Taylor Auf Wiedersehen Pet Two 286: There was a tidy few grand that the Fraud Squad and the Revenue would love to get their hands on.
1999		Guardian G2 27 Oct. 9: He earns a tidy packet from some weird IT consultancy.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 87: Cody has put some very tidy business our way.
2018		I. Welsh Dead Man’s Trousers 89: — Sam DeLita has just bought a piece for two hundred thousand dollars! — Tidy, Begbie says.

4. in good health.

1887

‘’Arry at the Sea-Side’ in Punch 10 Sept. 111/1: I’m jest tidy meself, flush of tin, with no end of a thunderin’ ‘pick.’.

5. competent, e.g. in a fight.

1993		I. Welsh Trainspotting 81: The cunt looks a wee bit tidy, like he could punch his weight.
2001		K. Sampson Outlaws (ms.) 10: Even before we was a firm, we was a tidy little crew.
2017		G. Gilmore Headland [ebook] ‘You need to be either smart or tidy to survive in this game’.
2018		I. Welsh Dead Man’s Trousers [39]: But when did you git tae be such a tidy cunt?

6. smart, clever.

1993		I. Welsh Trainspotting 103: — Fiona left this mornin boys. Canary Islands [...] She seemed to enjoy breaking the news. — Tidy, Billy muttered.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 4: Most important it provides a very tidy front to lose myself behind.